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Airports Are Being Stripped of Controversial Scanners
The TSA is taking out the body imaging scanners that travelers love to hate.
Budget TravelFriday, Jan 18, 2013, 2:40 PMGoing through security could be less stressful once the controversial body image scanners are removed. (Courtesy sixmilliondollardan/Flickr)Budget Travel LLC, 2016

Airports Are Being Stripped of Controversial Scanners

When body image scanners made their way into airports in 2010, travelers raised concerns over privacy violations and radiation exposure. Now, three years later, those scanners are being removed from airports around the country.

According to an article in Bloomberg, the reason behind the removal is that OSI Systems, who manufactures the machines, has not been able to meet a congressional deadline to make the produced images less revealing. The company reported that it wouldn't be able to perfect the technology until 2014, and the TSA chose to void the $5 million contract. The 174 machines now in use will be taken out of airports and used at other government agencies.

There will still be some body scanners in use, though. The Bloomberg article states that the TSA will continue use 60 machines manufactured by L-3 Communications Holdings. These machines use radio frequencies (instead of the X-ray radiation used by the OSI Systems machines) and have been producing less revealing images since 2011.

What do you think? Are you happy to see the machines being taken out of service?